Upcoming Liberal Changes To Justice System Abandon Personal Responsibility, Embrace Identity Politics

The risk is even more crime, as individuals who commit serious crimes remain free due to political correctness.

As we’ve witnessed, radical far-left ideas don’t stay in the universities.

They spread throughout society, and find their way into legislation and governance.

And so it is with identity politics, an ideology with Marxist underpinnings that erases individual responsibility and posits racial conflict as the key driver of society.

Now, the Liberals are fully embracing identity politics in the justice system, with consequences that could be dire.

According to a recent CBC article, the Liberals are “trying to divert racialized youth from courts, create Indigenous justice strategy.”

The Liberals are seeking to address what some call the ‘overrepresentation’ of Indigenous and Black people in Canada’s prisons, and activists are praising the move:

“Advocates for justice system reform are welcoming new proposals from the federal government to address the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous individuals and other racialized groups in the criminal justice system.

In the recent federal budget, the government pledged $216.4 million over five years, and $43.3 million each year after that, to divert Black and Indigenous youth and young people of colour from the courts.

The government also is proposing to give $21.5 million over five years to organizations that offer free public legal education and services to racialized communities, and to spend $26.8 million to help provinces maintain immigration and refugee legal aid support for asylum seekers.”

The report goes on:

“Advocates say the funding will help chip away at the disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous individuals and other people of colour in Canada’s corrections system.

Indigenous people make up more than 30 per cent of the prison population, according to the Correctional Investigator of Canada, but account for only 5 per cent of the wider Canadian population. Black Canadians comprise seven per cent of federal offenders but only represent three per cent of the general population, according to government statistics.

“The fundamental goal is to make the system fairer and more just for all Canadians,” Justice Minister David Lametti told CBC News.

Aaron Bains, president of the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto, also praised the budget measures but said Ottawa should not act alone. He said municipal, provincial and territorial governments also need to step up.

“It will take a multi-tiered and multi-party approach to completely eradicate racism, if that’s even possible,” Bains said.”

I want to bring attention to this line again:

“Indigenous people make up more than 30 per cent of the prison population, according to the Correctional Investigator of Canada, but account for only 5 per cent of the wider Canadian population. Black Canadians comprise seven per cent of federal offenders but only represent three per cent of the general population, according to government statistics.”

Do you notice anything missing from this?

Why are two statistics mentioned – the overall population of Indigenous and Black Canadians and their percentage among those incarcerated – but the third – and most relevant statistic – the percentage of crimes committed by members of those groups, is left out?

If it was the case that Indigenous and Black people committed crimes at the same rate as the rest of the population, but were jailed at higher levels, then certainly a discussion of racism would be pertinent.

But if it is the case that Indigenous and Black people on average are committing a higher proportion of crimes relative to their proportion of Canada’s population, then having higher rates of incarceration isn’t about racism at all.

What are the facts?

Let’s take a look at what was written by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, and Scot Wortley of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto:

“Canada effectively bans systematic collection and dissemination of racially disaggregated criminal justice statistics. A significant proportion of Canada’s racial minority populations perceive bias in the criminal justice system, especially on the part of police. Aboriginal and black Canadians are grossly overrepresented in Canada’s correctional institutions. Some evidence suggests that both Aboriginal and black populations are overrepresented with respect to violent offending and victimization. Social conditions in which Aboriginal and black Canadians live are at least partially to blame for their possibly elevated rates of violent offending. Evidence indicates that racial bias exists in the administration of Canadian criminal justice. At times, this discrimination has been supported by court decisions. Discrimination and disparity are at times acknowledged by government, but they are seldom wholeheartedly addressed. There is a lack of political will to address issues of racial minority overrepresentation in relation to manifestations of racial discrimination or to the societal conditions that lead to criminal offending.”

Unsurprisingly, the above text is written in a very politically-correct manner, but this section is of particular note:

“Some evidence suggests that both Aboriginal and black populations are overrepresented with respect to violent offending and victimization.”

This tracks with other statistics in the country, noting that areas of Canada with a higher concentration of Indigenous and Black individuals tend to have a higher rate of crime relative to the rest of the nation.

Further, it is essential to note that the victims of crime are also thus more likely to be Indigenous or Black.

This is something that is often left out.

If the Liberals are seeking to make changes to reduce the proportion of incarcerated Canadians who are Indigenous or Black, that means a higher proportion of Indigenous and Black Canadians will see their victimizers receive far weaker punishments, putting those victimizers back out on the streets sooner, thus enabling further victimization of innocent individuals.

Furthermore, this is insulting to the vast majority of Indigenous and Black Canadians who aren’t criminals, since it implies that some groups simply don’t have what it takes to be responsible for their own actions – an ironically racist attitude from those who see themselves as the most fervent ‘anti-racists.’

The government should be standing with innocent people of all backgrounds, rather than taking actions that will benefit criminals at the expense of everyone else.

The poison of identity politics

In a logical, fact-based world, we would be looking at taking measures to reduce crime in communities where crime is disproportionately high.

In many cases, that will require harsher punishments, longer jail terms, more police, and a tougher overall approach that keeps victimizers away from innocent people.

At the same time, we can also look at how further educational opportunities and economic growth can benefit communities where crime is high.

Both approaches are important.

However, if we instead surrender to identity politics, as the Liberals have done, we will simply spend a bunch of money without fixing any real problems, while creating new problems.

Unless we can first admit and acknowledge that individuals of certain backgrounds are incarcerated at a higher rate because they commit crimes at a higher rate, we will never be able to actually turn that around.

Addressing incarceration without addressing crime is the height of stupidity.

Under the Liberal approach, identity politics will further poison our justice system, with the risk that our country will move even further away from individual responsibility, and closer to a racially-divided and more dangerous future.

Spencer Fernando

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